Archived News:

Tuesday, Nov 20, 2012

Players can opt to play as one of six classes to aid their chosen Empire in global domination. They’ll fight for control of key territories and valuable resources on three playable continents – Indar, Esamir and Amerish. With an extensive skill tree and free-form class-based system, players will be able to customize their soldier, weapons and vehicles to match their play-style, as well as the needs of their squad, outfit or empire. Battles can last for days or weeks, so players will need to build alliances and specialized combat outfits to take on long-term strategic and tactical initiatives. With aircraft and ground vehicles, as well as infantry combat, the battles will be larger and more intense than ever before.

As players earn battle experience, they’ll increase their certs and unlock access to new roles and extensive customization options, along with a variety of weapons and vehicles.

“PlanetSide 2 is designed to enable player-driven combat where teammates rely on each other to succeed and survive. With so much control in the hands of the players, every day we learn more about what they can and will do in Auraxis,” said Higby. “We’ve launched, but development will never be done. We have tons of plans in place and content in development to help fuel years of battle.”

The Windows edition of Assassin's Creed III is now available in North America, offering the chance to sneak around some American Revolutionary War battlefields in the latest installment in the stealth franchise. In addition to the retail version, there's a standard edition sold digitally through GameStop PC Downloads and Steam, along with Digital Deluxe editions (GameStop/Steam), and a DLC Seasons Pass (GameStop/Steam). Steam has a quick explanation of the difference: "The Deluxe Edition comes with the Season Pass, 4 bonus single-player missions, the official Assassin’s Creed® III soundtrack (mp3 files) and George Washington’s notebook (pdf file)."

Today marks the worldwide release of Hitman: Absolution, marking the return of 47 and this stealth/action series. Here's word from the description on Steam:

Hitman: Absolution follows the Original Assassin undertaking his most personal contract to date. Betrayed by the Agency and hunted by the police, Agent 47 finds himself pursuing redemption in a corrupt and twisted world.

This job posting and this one seek software engineers to join Halo developer 343 Studios, to work on "building the next generation of backend services to power Halo 4 and our new game saga." As noted by GameSpot, each listing has an interesting note under qualifications for an ideal candidate: "Experience in MMO development."

Kickstarter now has a campaign to fund Legend of Dungeon, a pixel art roguelike for Windows, OS X, and Linux by husband-and-wife team RobotLovesKitty. The game has a modest $5,000 goal, and to see if it's worthy of your support, here's a trailer, and there's also a playable demo of an early build. Here's word on that: "As you explore the sparsely lit dungeon, gather items and battle monsters you will no doubt end up dead, and like classic rogue, death is game over. Except with co-op, instead, you turn into a ghost and collect the glowing souls of monsters your comrades have slain in order to revive. Another interesting aspect of single and multiplayer is that the dungeon doesn't adjust for player count, so alone you might have more apples to eat and hats to wear, but there will also be more monsters for you alone to kill."

THQ announces an update on the company's dicey credit situation. They announce they have entered into a forbearance agreement with Wells Fargo to prevent the bank from bringing the hammer down on THQ for its defaulted credit facility. The company also announces "that it has entered into exclusive negotiations with a financial sponsor regarding financing alternatives which may result in, among other things, significant and material dilution to shareholders." Finally, they announce the departure of Paul Pucino, their former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Steam News has word on a new automatic patch that's now available for Portal 2. This has a couple of bug fixes and adds local co-op support. Word is: "Added 2 controller splitscreen support for Standard Co-Op. Press X on the second controller inside the first Co-op menu to activate it."

Steam News announces the availability of a new patch for Natural Selection 2 to update Unknown Worlds' newly released action/strategy sequel with a number of balance changes and bug fixes, which are detailed below: Continue here to read the full story.

This launch trailer offers another quick look at Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage to pave the way for this DLC for Borderlands 2, which is now available for Gearbox Software's first-person shooter/RPG on Windows and consoles. Aside from touting today's release, here's what the description says about this video: "EXPLOSIONS!!!"

This year's annual charity drive is now underway on Child's Play. This year's likely-to-be-smashed goal is about $2.25 million, and they have already raised about a quarter of that total, which will benefit sick children with toys and games. Thanks nin.

The Kickstarter for Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption reveals this RPG from the designers of Quest for Glory has met its funding goals with a few hours to spare. This page has some details on their plans going forward as well as a video of a Google+ homestretch chat they conducted.

Another just concluded Kickstarter shows that Strike Suit Zero has met its funding goals, and Born Ready Games is set to make their mark on the resurgent space combat genre, saying the PC version of their game is expected on January 24, 2013, with console versions to follow. Here's word:

The outpouring of support by close to 4,500 backers, who helped the Kickstarter succeed by an additional 75% beyond the initial target of $100K, means that in addition to the core game, fans will have access to XedMod, a lightweight and unified version of Xed, the development toolset used by Born Ready to create the game. As part of the Kickstarter campaign, Born Ready also offered exclusive PC beta access for the first thousand backers who pledged $50 or more. This closed beta is currently scheduled for early December.

James Brooksby, CEO of Born Ready Games said “We are truly grateful for all the support we’ve received and above all else want to thank the community. Their support has meant we’re now able to make the game we always envisioned, and we can’t wait for our fans to get their hands on it.”

Well amidst a hectic week at the BlueTower we had our annual physicals this morning, which has caused a bit of a setback in posting the news this morning, for which I apologize. A final word on this must wait for our blood tests to return, but I got a very upbeat initial overview that I seem to have the metabolism of a runner, in spite of being amazingly sedentary. I'm not taking this for granted, and want to make a point of getting more regular exercise before whatever luck I've been experiencing in this area wears off.